


U is for Uldred

by OtakuElf



Series: YADAA (Yet Another Dragon Age Alphabet) [21]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Asexual Character, Chantry Boys, Circle of Magi, Gen, Mages (Dragon Age), Mages and Templars, Templars (Dragon Age), The Chantry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 16:15:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5832235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OtakuElf/pseuds/OtakuElf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ullie was not always what he became.</p>
            </blockquote>





	U is for Uldred

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Lunamoth116 for beta-reading!

Fenlan took care of Ullie. Ever since that first day, the day that the templars had carried him in through the huge stone archway of the Circle, Fenlan had been there to take charge, to make certain that Ullie was fed and had a place to sleep. With Fenlan there, Ullie was not afraid in this new place. Fenlan let Ullie share with him as well. Ullie liked that. Fenlan acted like Ullie actually had things to share.

Ullie did not have much. Not many of the Chantry children had anything. An unwanted or unexpected offspring could be left at the Chantry entryway at any time: boy or girl, infant or child, it didn’t much matter. All were “welcome” at the Chantry. And all would be used to further the Chantry’s goals - boys as templars, girls as Sisters and Lay workers. 

The Chantry buildings were all made of Fereldan stone, with tall ceilings and cold stone-flagged floors, so the Circle was not that much different from where the boys were taught. But in the Chantry housing, there were different lessons than those of the Circle - the Chant, and numbers, and how to read. And how to clean. Templars did not stare at the Chantry boys, and they would often joke or give a treat. There were no treats from templars at the Circle. Only stares.

Circle lessons had all of those things, but also concentration. Focusing was important. If you lost your focus, you could set fire to the library - at least until the librarian threw you out. Or sometimes spells would not work at all if you lost concentration. Ullie liked the exercises for anything to do with spells. Fenlan did not like to practice concentrating so much.

Fenlan was big, soft-looking, and had trouble talking sometimes. Magic was easier than words for Fenlan, but only some magics; their teachers said “entropy”. Ullie was bright, round-faced for all his thinness, with fine dark hair and a chorister’s voice, and he coaxed sweets from the kitchen workers. He didn’t share them with everyone; that was Fenlan’s job. Ullie gave the candied fruit, or biscuits, or cakes to Fenlan, and then Fenlan divided them up fairly in the apprentice dormitories at night, so that everyone got to try them. Not just the senior enchanters. Or the templars.

Ullie was good, though. He was going to be an enchanter. Fenlan had told him, and his mage teachers too. Ullie was so young when his magic showed that it was plain for everyone who had eyes to see that he would be First Enchanter when he was all grown. Fenlan was good too, to the other children. Ullie was going to be First Enchanter, and Fenlan was going to be his helper, telling him all the things that it would be good to do. “You and me, Ullie. We’re going to change things for mages. They’ll be good. Good for you. Good for me. Good for all mages,” Fenlan told him at night in the apprentice dorms.

Only, it didn’t work out that way. Their ideas, their hopes and dreams were blocked at every turn. Templars to begin with, more close to home. No experimenting with spellwork outside of classrooms. No playing in the hallways, the courtyard, or at all, even.

Then there was the rest of the Chantry - restricting access to important works from Rivain and Tevinter so that Ullie could not learn everything he needed. Keeping mages like Fenlan imprisoned because there was no call for their magics in the outside world. As Ullie grew in skill, especially after his Harrowing, he was allowed to leave the Circle. Though he was not a healer, they needed the spells that Ullie could almost effortlessly cast. He was always accompanied by templars, of course.

Then there were the other mages. Older Senior Enchanters who thought they knew so very much more than Ullie and Fenlan. Foolish healers who wouldn’t study all of the body for fear it might be construed as blood magic. Idiot members of other fraternities. Isolationists, who thought shutting themselves off would keep the world from seeing mages as a threat. Lucrosians, who thought that money brought power with it. Loyalists, who thought that the Chantry was doing the Maker’s work, and that it had not been corrupted through the ages. Aequitarians - the greatest of the fools - thought that servitude to the Chantry was morally necessary, even if the Chantry was unjust. So many fools. As though any but the Libertarians would bring about the freedom of mages across Thedas. No one wanted a return to the bad old days of the Tevinter Imperium, of course, but mages were important. They could be powerful. People should recognize that and respect them.

The boys grew, and learned, and became enchanters. An amusing pair, or so it was said: Ullie tall and thin, with his friend who was no longer as tall, but big around the middle. Ullie was clean-shaven, while Fenlan wore a big bushy beard to cover the spots on his skin. They still visited the kitchen women, much as they had done as children. They were not much a part of the social structure of the circle anymore. The mages their age were interested in sex instead of food treats. Fenlan liked girls, but was too shy to tell them the things they wanted to hear. Ullie was disinterested in either females or males. He had Fenlan as a friend, and that was all he really needed. 

Then, Fenlan spoke out once too often, not content to have his words delivered through Ullie. He was harsh, didn’t pick up on the cues that Ullie did. Telling a visiting Chantry official that mages should be proud of their skills: “The common folk of Thedas should be grateful for magecraft.” That its importance was well beyond their tiny intellects to comprehend. Ullie could not protect Fenlan if he did not have the patience to wait for Ullie to make his words sound better.

Fenlan died of the flux. There are no healers in Aeonar. 

Ullie received notice of Fenlan’s death from a passing templar. The Knight-Commander had not even cared enough to let Ullie know, though everyone knew they had been friends, had been as close as brothers. “I am not your servant to deliver messages to you, young man,” that old man had said, smug in his steel suit and templar skirts. 

Grief, it is said, is a powerful agent. Ullie shut himself up in his rooms for a month. He did not lose all of what thin hair he had, but it was patchy and awful-looking when he stared in the mirror. And Ullie had been such a good-looking boy. Better to keep his head shaved. If Ullie was going to change the world, he would have to look the part of an enchanter. Not an old, bearded man like so many mages elected as their appearance. Appearance. That was a good part of it all, wasn’t it? 

Theara, one of the kitchen folk, heard about his friend’s death. She’d begged the indulgence of a templar to walk her up to the enchanters’ rooms. The templar’s steel gauntlet banging on the door had brought Ullie to open it. He knew better than to disobey the templars. “Ullie, you have to eat,” she told him, holding out a tray of stew and sweet bread. 

The thin, pale mage stalked over to take the tray from the kitchen woman’s hands, giving her the nod of thanks that someone common, someone not of mage blood, deserved. He did not have time to deal with underlings. He told her, “My name is Uldred” before turning his back on the woman.

She would learn. They would all learn. He was going to change the world. Now that Fenlan was dead, there was only Uldred to make that occur.


End file.
